A new right wing group, Movement of National Change, will contest local elections in Poland next year.

The leaders claim the new group is not a political party but “a grassroots movement,” even though its main aim is to gain votes in the next local election.

“Our movement is to gather all those who think and feel Polish - be they independents or party members,” declared Jerzy Robert Nowak, the movement’s leader.

The Movement of National Change wants to “serve the nation, protect Poland’s sovereignty, support the country’s economic development, support families and promote ethics based on Catholic social teaching.”

The Law and Justice party - the main political party on the ‘national-conservative’ wing of Polish politics - is watching the movement’s development carefully. Last Saturday, Law and Justice’s MP, Zbigniew Girzynski met with the movement’s politicians in Bydgoszcz to discuss the project. Jerzy Robert Nowak says he does not exclude closer cooperation with Law and Justice, “but we want [them] to define attitudes to fundamental questions.”

The new group is reported to be cooperating with Radio Maryja on the new project, founded by Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, who has been accused of allowing anti-Semitic statements to be broadcast on his station and has been warned by the Vatican not to dabble in parliamentary politics.

The movement is to be financed by Jan Kobylanski, a Polish-Paraguayan businessman who was founder of the Union of Polish Associations and Organizations in Latin America, the largest Polish immigrant organization of South America. (jg/pg)